The Mohican Board! [Bumppo's Redux!] - Scenes From the Mohawk Valley

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James N.
Colonial Militia

USA

Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 24 2007

Status: offline

Posted - January 06 2012 : 11:50:12 AM

The recent posts here about the discovery of the site of Fort Hunter motovated me to "revisit" photos taken in the Mohawk Valley in the fall of 1993 on one of my "flying vacations" to Upstate New York. I was then studying the Revolution in those areas, particularly as it involved the family of Sir William Johnson, his "brother-in-law" Joseph Brant, and patriot Col. Marinus Willett. Having previously visited Saratoga, I wanted especially to see those places in the valley relating to Burgoyne's campaign, mainly Ft. Stanwix and Oriskany Battlefield.

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Johnson Hall, now a part of the New York State Park system. The spacious lawn served as the scene of many conferences with Johnson's allies the Iroquois.

Sir William Johnson is probably the most remarkable personality produced by Colonial America, rivaled only by George Washington. A "Scots-Irish" native of Ireland, he came to the Mohawk Valley as a young man in his twenties to administer lands granted to his uncle for victories against France in the naval wars of the 1740's. He soon gained a reputation among his neighbors, the Mohawks as a fair trading partner truly interested in them and their culture. ( A somewhat more "civilized" version of Hawkeye! ) The valley was being settled by Palatinate Germans, tenants on the lands Johnson administered, and he married one of these girls named Catherine, fathering three children. Upon her death, he "married" in Indian ceremony Molly Brant, elder sister of later Chief Joseph Brant, whom he sponsored and sent to mission school to educate. With Molly and another Indian "wife" he sired another eleven children!

We remember him here as a leader in the French and Indian War, rallying the Mohawk and other Iroquois to support the British cause. As commander of one wing of the British advance in 1755, he defeated the French on the shores of Lac Ste. Sacrament, which he promptly renamed Lake George, selecting its southern shore as the location of a fort he named William Henry! Later, through an accident which decapitated the British general in command of besieging forces, Johnson as second-in-command accepted the surrender of French Fort Niagra. Though an "ameteur" soldier, he emerged from the war as a genuine hero and was knighted for his service to the crown, becoming known somewhat disparagingly ( and enviously! ) as "The Mohawk Baronet".

No less than three of his homes survive in the valley near Johnstown, named for him, and where he was buried following his death in 1774 following a long illness resulting from complications of the wound he had recieved at the Battle of Lake George nearly twenty years earlier. Tended faithfully by his Lady of the Mohawks, he fortunately died prior to seeing the Revolution wipe out much that he had accomplished, impoverishing and making refugees of his legitimate heirs and his reputedly many half-blood offspring, both from his liason with Molly and others.

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The 1749 stone house above was a typical frontier "forted" house, substantially built, with loopholes for firing muskets. Johnson Hall was built about 1762 when he thought the threat of war was likely over, and is of wood construction, similar to its contemporary Mount Vernon. Johnson died in one of the downstairs rooms, converted into his bedchamber when he could no longer climb the stairs. The blockhouse on the left is one of two originals ( the other is a replica ), which served mainly for storage despite their military appearance.

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James N.
Colonial Militia

USA

Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 24 2007

Status: offline

Posted - January 06 2012 : 2:02:57 PM

My main objective in this trip was to see Ft. Stanwix ( called Ft. Schuyler during the Revolution ), reconstructed for the Bicentennial of the siege in 1977 and now a unit of the National Park Service. Unfortunately, the day of my visit was overcast and drizzling and I found NO decent vantage points from which to photograph it; substiantially, it resembles the Fort William Henry reconstruction. One of the better features of its reconstruction undoubtedly was as an urban-renewal tear-down of the existing slum that had grown up on the original site, now in downtown Rome, N.Y.

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Oriskany Battlefield - The ravine where the colonials were first attacked.

I had better luck at nearby Oriskany Battlefield State Park, scene of an ambush by Chief Joseph Brant's Seneca and other Iroquois, allies of Barry St. Leger's British and Tories besieging Ft. Stanwix/Schuyler. The colonial militia that marched to relieve the fort were strung out in column reminiscent of Braddock's men in 1755. Fortunately, they were led by a stout Palatine German general of militia, Nicholas Herkimer, and did not panic. They continued to advance to high ground across the narrow creek and formed a rough circle from which they fought off Brant's Indians, with the wounded Herkimer propped against a saddle and puffing stoicly on his pipe while he directed the defense. Though defeated, suffering heavy losses and forced to retreat, Herkimer's force was not destroyed.

Oriskany proved to be an ironic turning point in the siege, Burgoyne's Saratoga campaign, and the entire Revolution when Continental Col. Marinus Willett led a sortie from the besieged fort during the battle that captured, looted, and burned the Indian's encampments while they were busy fighting Herkimer. The Seneca were so devastated that they gave up and returned home, leaving St. Leger too few men to continue the siege, thus foiling one prong of the British advance on Albany and allowing the Revolutionary army to concentrate their forces against Burgoyne. His surrender led to French intervention that secured American Independence: "For the want of a nail..."!

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Unfortunately, in the late 1800's when Oriskany was acquired by the state, the fashion was to commemorate and memorialize history rather than trying to PRESERVE it; hence the focus was to scour the hilltop where Herkimer made his stand, stripping it of brush and rock and building a big obelisk on the site! The tiny museum/visitor center near its base was closed for the ridiculously short "season" ( probably no real loss there! ), but despite the drizzle I was able to hike down into the overgrown ravine where the battle had begun, affording a much better idea of the conditions under which the battle had been fought.